In a vehicle washing operation, the rotary brushes undergo substantial wear and thus must be periodically replaced or repositioned. Since the rotary brushes are of substantial length, they are normally supported by bearings located adjacent the opposite axial ends of the brush. For this purpose, the brush normally has stub shafts welded on the ends thereof or has an elongated support shaft extending throughout the length thereof for support on the bearings. This structure makes replacement or repositioning of the brush, such as by turning the brush end for end, extremely difficult and time consuming. Particularly, removal of the brush and replacement or repositioning thereof can normally be accomplished only by first axially pulling out the complete shaft through the bearing assembly. The need to pull the shaft axially through the bearing assembly is extremely difficult and time consuming, and can also cause severe damage to the bearing. Further, such a maintenance or repair operation necessarily results in the washing assembly being shutdown for a substantial period of time.
A further disadvantage associated with structures of this general type is that any damage to the shaft, such as caused by a bad bearing, requires replacement of the complete shaft. This is undesirable, both from the standpoint of the magnitude of maintenance and shutdown time rquired, but also from the standpoint of the cost of the new shaft.
While the above problems are commonly experienced in a vehicle washing operation, substantially similar problems are also encountered in numerous other environments wherein elongated surface treatment members, such as rollers, buffing wheels and the like, are supported by bearings located adjacent the opposite axial ends of the member.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved separable stub shaft connection for supporting a rotatable member within a bearing, which stub shaft connection overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages by greatly simplifying the replacement or repositioning of the rotary member relative to the bearing. The rotary member in a preferred embodiment of the invention, comprises a rotatable surface treatment member such as a brush used in association with a vehicle washing system, whereby the improved stub shaft connection greatly siimplifies both replacement and repositioning of the brush, such as repositioning the brush end for end, thereby providing substantially increased brush life and economy by providing for more uniform wear of the brush.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an improved stub shaft connection, as aforesaid, which permits the replacement or repositioning of a rotary member, such as a brush, in a minimal amount of time and in a manner which is not damaging to the bearings, and which requires no elaborate tools or equipment.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a stub shaft connection, as aforesaid, which does not require precision machine work so that same can be manufactured in an extremely simple and economical manner, which can be manufactured from relatively inexpensive material, and which can be manufactured in a manner resulting in substantially no wastage of materials. The stub shaft connection of the present invention can also be utilized under adverse conditions where rust and corrosion may occur without adversely affecting or impairing the use of the connection.
Other objects and purposes of the present invention will be apparent to persons acquainted with structures of this general type upon reading the following description and inspecting the accompanying drawings.